Kiss Away the Pain
by Ms. Videl Son
Summary: ThreeShot. “N nothing heals w without a k kiss...” SasuHina. Prequel to “Speak Up”
1. No

**Title:** Kiss Away the Pain  
**Disclaimer:** If I owned _Naruto_, Sasuke and Hinata would actually have a bit of interaction in canon. As it is, they don't, so I guess I don't own _Naruto_.  
**Rating:** PG ( K+ ) – for a bit of cursing and Sasuke being a meanie.  
**Spoilers:** If you haven't read past the first volume of _Naruto_, you're in for a few surprises. Additionally, you're a total idiot for reading fanfiction in the _Naruto_ section. Shoo!

**Summary:** ThreeShot. "N-nothing heals w-without a k-kiss..." SasuHina. (Prequel to "Speak Up")

Written in honor of Riceesquared, my newest accomplice.

* * *

**Part One:** No

"Where'd he go? I swear, he just turned down this way!"

"You lost him, Ino-pig!"

"Shut up, Bilboard Brow! I did not!"

'_This is stupid_,' Uchiha Sasuke thought, careful not to speak his thoughts aloud lest he give away his location to the mob of heartthrob-hungry schoolgirls. '_Why the hell am I hiding from a bunch of girls?_'

"Maybe he stopped to pee somewhere...?"

"Ooh, I hope so! If we move fast enough, we can 'accidentally' walk in on him!"

Sasuke grimaced and ducked lower behind the bush he was using for cover. '_Oh yeah, they're psychotic._'

Eight girls from his class – all of various shapes, sizes and social status – were congregated for the simple task of catching the slippery Uchiha, intent on doing...something with him. Sasuke didn't think that even they knew what they wanted to do with him if they caught him, but he shuddered to think of things they could come up with. He knew that Sakura and Ino, at least, had...vivid imaginations about their relationships with him, all without any encouragement from their prey.

Twelve-years-old and already the source of constant sexual harassment; this was Uchiha Sasuke's life.

"Eee! I see him, I see him!"

"Shit," Sasuke muttered, finding his shelter suddenly useless. He leapt out of the bush, bounced off the head of the nearest Uchiha-chaser, and took to the rooftops of the quiet suburban neighborhood. The troupe of girls squealed as he made his quick escape.

"After him!"

"I hate girls," Sasuke growled, suspiciously checking his blind spots for any hint of his zealous admirers; nothing. He narrowed his eyes and sped up, wary of the absence of any pursuers.

He bounced from rooftop to rooftop on feet light with desperation, zig-zagging back and forth to avoid establishing a pattern that his hunters could follow. With his intentional lack of predetermined direction, Sasuke was smugly confident that the hormone-driven pack of she-wolves on his tail would never even come close to catc –

"GOTCHA!" a shrill voice trilled as Sasuke's left ankle was pulled out from under him. The Uchiha avenger collapsed, face-first, and felt himself dragged across the rooftop to the ledge, chin bumping and scraping against the uneven tile as he slid. "I've caught you, my love! What a quick little cupid you are!"

Sasuke peeled his face away from the red clay tile as vomit began to rise in his throat. '_"Quick little cupid"...?_'

With deliberately drawn out motion, the Uchiha avenger turned his head to send the one who had managed to catch him a frosty glare. It was Ino, smiling and winking at him in triumph from over the edge of the roof.

"Let go," Sasuke intoned with a dull, hard edge to his voice.

Ino thrust her lip out in a derisive pout. "Don't be so cold, Sasuke-kun. You don't have to pretend that there's nothing between us now that forehead-girl isn't around to get in the way."

Sasuke's already narrowed eyes reduced to sharp slivers as he attempted to shake his leg free of Ino's desperate grasp. She held fast. "Let go," he repeated.

"You're shy! How _cute_," Ino cooed, arriving at the first convenient justification as to why Sasuke could possibly want to squirm out of her clingy hands. "Just hold still for a moment, honeybunch, and I'll climb right up and – "

Out of nowhere, a shiver climbed up Sasuke's spine as the atmosphere darkened and the temperature dropped several degrees. Simultaneously, the air became muggy and thick, nearly drowning him in a dark, oppressive fog. It was rather like being trapped in a cold August day.

"_Inoooo-piiiig...!_"

The entangled preteens turned their heads with cautious procrastination to confront the source of conflicting weather patterns. Beads of sweat rolled down Ino's face as she forced a smile. "Sa-Sakura-chan..."

Sakura stood on the crest of the roof, enshrouded by a roiling cloud of miasma. Lightning crackled against her ghastly-white skin as she glared across the sloped expanse of weather-beaten tile at her one-time friend and ensnared love interest. Her lips were curled in unnatural smile that twitched when she spoke, "Ino...what are you doing to Sasuke-kun?"

At some point during the confrontation, Ino seemed to have reclaimed her courage. She clutched at Sasuke's leg defiantly and flashed her tongue at her pink-haired rival. "None of your business, that's what! Now show some class and give us a bit of privacy."

Sasuke's eyebrow started to twitch. '_Here we go..._,' he thought, resting his chin in the palm of his hand while the two obsessive kunoichi squared off on top of him.

"Pig!"

"Billboard-brow!

"Hussy!"

"Wannabe!"

The two girls pressed their foreheads together and allowed sparks to mingle between them. Sasuke remained trapped underneath them, impatiently waiting for one of them to let their guard down enough to give him a chance to escape. In the meantime, he tapped his fingers against the rooftop and avoided attracting their flighty attention.

"As _if_ Sasuke-kun would lay a hand on your flabby body!" Sakura screeched, holding her middle finger aloft between herself and her adversary. "He doesn't even _like_ pork!"

"Oh yeah?" Ino broke her hold on Sasuke to threaten Sakura with both fists. "Well, he doesn't like scrawny chicken legs or limp noodle breasts, either! The only thing oversized about you is your _forehead_!"

"Why, you – "

Sasuke didn't hear the rest as he slipped away from the bickering fangirls, leaving a convenient weather vane behind in his place. "Feh!" the Uchiha snorted, landing with smooth grace three rooftops away. "Stupid girls."

The avenger turned to look behind him, just in case his decoy was already discovered. He squinted hard at the two shaded figures that were his two most zealous admirers and smirked. The weather vane was already melted between them.

The Uchiha stood, turned, and –

"HEY! There he goes!"

– fell off the roof.

— — —

**Authors Notes:** That's right. I've been holding out on you all! I wrote the bulk of this fic about a month before I even started "Speak Up."

Not to worry, though. There will be a surprise in the last chapter of this fic that'll make the wait worthwhile **n.n**

Expect another update approximately a week from now.

Un-beta'd.

_**. ( . Ms Videl Son . ) .**_

– _Love can be black and white. SasuHina._


	2. More

**Title:** Kiss Away the Pain  
**Disclaimer:** If I owned Naruto, Sasuke and Hinata would actually have a bit of interaction in canon. As it is, they don't, so I guess I don't own Naruto.  
**Rating:** PG ( K+ ) – for a bit of cursing and Sasuke being a meanie.  
**Spoilers:** If you haven't read past the first volume of Naruto, you're in for a few surprises. Additionally, you're a total idiot for reading fanfiction in the Naruto section. Shoo!

**Summary:** ThreeShot. "N-nothing heals w-without a k-kiss..." SasuHina. (Prequel to "Speak Up")

Written in honor of Riceesquared, my newest accomplice.

* * *

**Part Two:** More

'_I need more training..._,' was the single thought that skittered across Sasuke's mind as he lay glaring up at the sky, flat on his back in what he assumed to be someone's backyard zen garden. Though the sandy terrain had cushioned his ungainly fall, Sasuke cursed it for the rash he was bound to have later. '_So much for changing my underwear this morning..._'

With a creak in his spine, Sasuke sat up and shook the powdery earth out of his hair. "I really hate girls," he decided, rubbing the sore muscles in his neck tenderly. "Feather-brained, moody, psychotic, and deaf, the whole lot of them."

"A-ano...Sasuke-san, is that y-you?"

Startled by the soft, unobtrusive voice that called out to him, Sasuke leapt to his feet, assuming a reflexive fighting stance.

A couple hundred yards away, standing on a low porch wrapped around the house he had fallen off of, was a girl about his age staring in startled horror at him. She seemed vaguely familiar, but Sasuke had to admit that he could hardly tell one grasping, opportunistic female from another. Overall, there was nothing about the girl that hinted at the girls identity aside from her eyes, which were large and blanched.

Though he didn't know many specifics about the family, he could tell that the girl was a Hyuuga. The hueless eyes were a tell-tale sign of the clan's infamous bloodlimit, which was only carried by those closely related to the main branch. Undoubtedly, this timid little weakling was some random second cousin to the illustrious clan that had found herself lucky enough to chance upon the Konoha heartthrob in her own backyard.

Sasuke surveyed her carefully from a distance, gauging his potential threat with a keen eye. She seemed harmless enough at first glance, but they all did; there was no telling what the girl might be plotting behind those innocent alabaster eyes of hers.

The girls' body was wrapped in an indigo-dyed yukata ( 1 ) that was patterned with white and lavender lilies along the bottom hem and sleeves; the casual attire of the Hyuuga household, most likely. The fabric was snug on her silhouette, but not in a vulgar or licentious way, suggesting that she wasn't hiding any easily accessible weapons on her person.

Her hair made him a little suspicious at first; the only reason he could think of for a woman with short hair to pull it back would be to hide a discreet kunai in plain view as a hairpin. Though her cut was more of a stylized bob, she had attempted to form the longer layers into a bun at the back of her head, neglecting to realize that the feat was practically impossible to achieve on an aesthetically pleasing level. The girl's disheveled coiffure was an unfortunate failure of style, but in the absence of any ornamental clips or combs, appeared to be innocent enough.

Overall, the girl was unfortunately dressed, but probably harmless.

'_She won't even slow me down_,' Sasuke decided, straightening his posture to stand erect.

As the girl began to descend the steps, however, the Uchiha prodigy tensed his muscles in preparation to flee. Just in case.

"W-what happened, S-Sasuke-san?" the girl asked, stepping gingerly onto the first stepping stone leading into the sandy zen garden. Her feet were bare save for a pair of tabi ( 2 ),but she seemed to ignore the rough stone upon which she tread. "Are y-you alright?"

Sasuke stumbled back a few paces, hands held up before him in self-defense. "Stay back," he warned.

The girl stopped, each foot on a different stone. "B-but..."

"I said _stay back_," Sasuke snapped, moving backwards away from her. There was no telling when she would pounce; girls were slippery like that.

The Hyuuga girl remained obediently in place. "O-okay, Sasuke-san..."

The girl stood stiff and perfectly still, moving only enough to breathe.

"_Sasuuuuuuukeeee-kuuun!_"

Sasuke jumped as his heart leapt into his throat. Forgetting the potential enemy right in front of him, the Uchiha prodigy spun around in all directions searching for the known enemies that he couldn't immediately locate.

"_Sasuuuuuuukeeee-kuuun! Where are you, sweetums?_"

"_Don't call him that, you hussy!_"

"_I'll call him whatever I want, you –_ "

Without pausing to curse as he so dearly wanted to, Sasuke spun around and propelled himself forward toward the girl and the safety of the covered porch.

"S-Sasuke-san?" the girl squeaked, taking a wary step out of his path. "What's wr-wrong?"

Amending his route, the Uchiha Avenger bounded after her and swept the only witness to his location up in his arms. There was no way he was going to leave such shivering, cowardly waste of a human being to Sakura and Ino; she'd give away his position faster than he could get away!

With a swift leap, Sasuke mounted the porch, the Hyuuga girl trapped in his grasp. He ducked behind a convenient pillar holding the roof and the floor apart and, pinning the girl's back against his chest with his right hand, he covered her mouth with his left.

"Scream, cry, speak – anything, and you're _dead_!" he hissed, pressing his lips against the shell of the girl's ear. From his close proximity, he could feel the quick pulsation of her heart; it was a steady throb, despite its speed.

Though she trembled a little, the Hyuuga girl acquiesced to his threat and held her silence. The only sounds leaking from her body were those of her deep, heavy breathing rasping against the back of his hand.

"_Sasuuuuukeeee-kuuuun!_" another desperate cry rang out, quivering with grief. It came from nearby. "_Wheeeeere arrrreeeee yooouuu?_"

Sasuke clenched his fist into the girl's shoulder, causing her to squeal a little.

"Shut up!" he reminded her, squeezing harder. Judging by the amount of padding she seemed to be wearing, he doubted that he was actually hurting her.

Sasuke caught a glimpse of her tearful gaze in the corner of her right eye before she looked away again, resuming her silence.

..._tha-__**thump**_...

"_Saaa...kee...!_"

"_...kee...uuun!_"

The voices of his foes were melting away, signaling that it was finally safe to breach his hiding place. He relaxed his grip on the girl, dropping his hand away from her mouth, and whispered, "I think it's safe..."

Just in case he was mistaken, Sasuke held onto the girl's body. The other two could still be hunting in the general area, so the Uchiha wasn't ready to drop his guard completely yet. It was best if he held onto the Hyuuga girl until he was absolutely certain that they were gone. Her shampoo smelled pretty good, anyway; like lavender and green tea. Very calming.

"A-ano...S-S-Sasuke-san...?"

Sasuke looked down to address the girl's question. She kept her face averted from his, but Sasuke noted a red tint on the tip of her ear that seemed to indicate that she was blushing.

'_Stupid girl_,' he thought with a smug smirk. Probably fantasizing about why he had grabbed her, or something. "What?"

"C-could you l-let m-m-me go now?"

Sasuke had his mouth opened to snap about how much he _hated_ holding her – about how damned _lucky_ she was that he had decided to spare her life – and how much his ego _wasn't_ bruised by her rejection when it suddenly occurred to him that skinny girls didn't have such..._plush_ shoulders.

Slowly, Sasuke allowed his eyes to travel down the length of his own arm to where his hand rested –

– against her chest.

His immediate reaction was to go stiff, thus forcing himself to stop squeezing..._her_. After taking a moment to allow the blood to start circulating throughout his body again, Sasuke's logical deduction began functioning again.

'_I just... my first...touched...b-b-bre –_ '

Well, almost.

The garbled, nonsensical words forming in his mind incited his secondary reaction, which was to push the girl as far away from him as possible and overcompensate for the amount of blood that had drained out of his face.

Sure that he was blushing in a most embarrassing way, Sasuke removed his offending hand and shoved the girl forward and away from his person. She stumbled a little, but managed to catch her balance against the wall.

The Hyuuga girl righted herself and turned toward him, hand pressed against the place where he assumed her heart to be, mouthing words that had no sound. "Sa...Sasuke-s-san...," she barely managed, digging her nails into the lavender fabric of her yukata.

The cotton wrap was pulled back from her neck, revealing the barest of glimpses of what Sasuke had recently had the benefit of groping. Despite himself and his strong anti-female sentiments, the Uchiha prodigy couldn't prevent his curious eyes from dropping down to that smooth, pale sample of skin that almost allowed him to...see...

Sasuke's brow crinkled as a sudden thought struck him. Turning his back to the girl (and her cleavage), he held up his hands and began flexing his fingers as if taking invisible measurements. '_Huh..._,' he thought, sneaking a covert peek of the cowering Hyuuga girl over his shoulder. '_She must be older than she looks._'

"S-Sasuke-san...?"

The Uchiha avenger quickly looked away, convinced that he had been caught staring. He dearly hoped that the girl didn't think he had been "checking her out," or anything stupid like that. As her body was nearly consumed by the folds of her kimono, there wasn't much to oggle, anyway...

"What?" Sasuke grunted, taking great care to not even look at the girl through the corner of his eye.

"I...I th-think you're h-hurt."

With a skeptical eyebrow raised, Sasuke turned to glare at the Hyuuga girl. "I'm fine," he retorted simply.

"B-but...," the girl fiddled with the hem of one of her heavy sleeves, looking down. "You're b-b-bleeding."

Sasuke gave his body an abbreviated once-over, but found no evidence of the alleged wound. "I am not."

Raising a shaking hand, the Hyuuga girl indicated a rusty stain directly above her heart. When he had been...observing the girl earlier, Sasuke had mistaken the splotch as a part of the floral pattern that was scattered across the blueish-purple fabric. "I th-think you hurt y-your h-hand."

Sasuke looked down to observe the appendage his brief scan had overlooked; across the palm of his right hand was an oozing cut, probably acquired during his tumble from the roof.

"It's nothing," the Uchiha immediately dismissed, stuffing both hands deep into his pockets.

"I'll b-bandage it f-for you," the Hyuuga girl offered, taking a few shuffling steps toward the shoji ( 3 ) screen nearest to her. "W-wait here."

Before Sasuke could protest, the girl had drawn back the paper-screen door and disappeared within the house, presumably to retrieve the materials necessary to fix his hand.

"Hmph," the Uchiha snorted, turning toward the steps leading off the wrap-around porch.  
'_Like I need help from a girl..._'

"_Sasuuuuuuuukeeeeeeeeee-sweeeeeeeetums! Come out, come out, wherever yoooou arrreee!_"

"_I told you to stop calling him that!_"

"_Make me!_"

"_Yooou...!_"

Leaping back to flatten himself against the house, Sasuke thought better of his immediate escape. Though he didn't quite look forward to an extended period of time with the strange Hyuuga girl, Sasuke didn't particularly fear her intentions, either. Sure, she was probably as madly in love with him as every other girl in the village, but she at least attempted to hide it a little (the stuttering kind of gave her away, though).

Then again, she had rebuffed his..._embrace_ earlier, which might have indicated that she wasn't interested in him after all. That was how Sakura treated Naruto's advances, anyway.

Sasuke couldn't hold back a snort of laughter at the thought of his attentions being rebuffed like his idiot teammate's. '_She's probably the shy type_,' he decided.

Looking down to gaze fondly at his bleeding hand, Sasuke's lips quirked in a smirk as his cheeks lighted in the barest of blushes. Girls had a couple redeemable qualities, it turned out.

"Sasuke-san?"

The wary Uchiha avenger kept his body plastered to the wall as he whipped his head around to face the owner of the voice he now recognized. The Hyuuga girl was standing in the doorway, first aid kit clutched betwixt her pale hands, and staring at him as if he had lost his mind.

"What are you d-doing?"

"Hiding," Sasuke snorted, as if this were the most obvious conclusion in the world. He dropped his hand to the floor and hoped that she would equate his staring as concern for his injury (it kinda hurt, after all; well, a little).

The Hyuuga girl blinked her milky eyes at him, but didn't press the issue. "Oh."

Sasuke scrunched his face into a frown for appearances sake. "They're still close."

"Who?"

"The _girls_," Sasuke sneered, genuinely annoyed by the placating look she was giving him.

"A-ah...," the girl awarded him a humoring smile that the avenger detested. Did she not know about the psychotic fangirls chasing him? Or was she simply pretending that they didn't exist? "I see. W-would you l-like to sit down while I f-fix your h-hand?"

Sasuke snorted derisively, but decided not to pursue the issue. If she wanted to be in denial about all the other girls that found satisfaction in stalking him, then he wasn't going to go out of his way to correct her perceptions.

Slumping down to the floor from where he stood, Sasuke resigned himself to fate for a few minutes. If things got out of hand (pun unintended), he'd just dash off and take his chances with Sakura and Ino. He'd had enough experience with the other two to know how to handle them (though he _really_ preferred not to).

The young Hyuuga girl knelt beside him slowly, careful not to tear her yukata, and set the first aid items aside. "L-let me see your hand, p-please," she smiled, holding out her own palm to receive his.

Sasuke stubbornly crossed his arms over his chest, hiding them away from her good intentions. Hiding out in her yard didn't require him to actually _touch_ her (intentionally), after all. And he_ never_ allowed girls to touch _him_. "I don't need your help," he intoned firmly.

The Hyuuga's trembling smile fell, but she continued to hold her hand out to him. "B-but it will get inf-fected i-if I don't c-c-clean it."

"Feh."

"Y-you should really l-let me clean it," the Hyuuga girl insisted, scooting a little closer to him so that her knees brushed his thigh.

"No."

"P-please...?"

Sasuke's frown deepened into a scowl, "Are you deaf or just plain stupid? I said I don't need help."

The Hyuuga girl recoiled as if the hand she sought to treat had just struck her across the face. Finally withdrawing her arm, she cradled it to her body as her lip began to tremble. She lowered her head so that her bangs obscured her blanched eyes and stammered her apologies, "I'm s-s-sorry, S-Sasuke-san."

"Ah, damnit...," Sasuke muttered, squirming in place as her she withdrew into herself.

The Hyuuga's shoulders were hunched forward so that she almost appeared to be bowing to him in deference, as if she weren't a part of the most powerful and illustrious family in the entire land of fire. The uneven strands of her hair were beginning to fall from the tiny bun she had probably spent a lot of effort creating as her entire body shook, silently expressing the Hyuuga girl's anguish. Though he couldn't actually see any tears, every so often Sasuke could hear a little sob or covert sniffle, implicating that he had, in fact, made her cry.

"Here," the Uchiha barked, thrusting his hand under her nose. If the stupid girl was going to cry about it...

The Hyuuga leaned back, her probative eyes wide open and startled, and stared at his reluctant offering. Flicking her gaze upwards, she peered almost hopefully up at him through her disheveled hair. "S-Sasuke-san...?"

The Uchiha refused to look at her and, instead, fixated on the chaotic spot in the surrounding garden which he had destroyed in his trespassing. The flowing patterns of swirls and contour were destroyed by the initial landing and the two sets of footprints leading away from it.  
"I can't afford to have an infection. I've got to leave for a mission tomorrow."

"Eh...?" was the soft response from the girl. Out of the corner of his eye, Sasuke could see her tilt her head in confusion. "Oh! R-right, Sasuke-san. I-I'll c-c-clean it f-for you, th-then."

"Fine."

Without further preamble, the Uchiha's injured appendage was accepted into careful hands. The girl's slim fingers guided his arm by the wrist, stretching it to rest comfortably on a bed of fine cotton and plush flesh.

Once he was certain that the Hyuuga girl was no longer looking in his direction, Sasuke ventured to turn towards her again so that he could watch her dress his wounds. All the better to monitor her proficiency, of course.

His splayed fingers were relaxed against her thigh, cushioned lovingly as she soaked a cloth with some sort of antiseptic solution. The girl set the bottle aside and took up his hand, again by the wrist, lifting it away from it's contented resting place amongst the pattern of cotton lilies.  
"This might sting a little," she warned before dabbing lightly at his abrasion with the swab.

'_Might sting a __**little**_' The Uchiha thought as he yelped and yanked his hand away from her. Sasuke, in his first true display of emotion to this fragile little girl, growled, "What the hell is that stuff?"

"M-my family's s-special h-healing s-s-salve," the Hyuuga replied, hanging her head a little. "I w-warned you it m-might st-sting a little."

Sasuke covered his wound protectively from her sight again by tucking it behind his back.  
"A _little_?" he growled. "That stuff burns like hell!"

"B-but it will p-prevent inf-fection. Let me f-finish," she held out her hand to accept him again.

"No."

"Y-yes."

"_No_."

The Hyuuga girl thrust out her lower lip in a frown and admonished him, "You're making this h-harder than it has to b-be. I'm almost d-done."

Leaning forward on her knees, the Hyuuga reached out for his arm, obviously prepared to pull it out of hiding herself. Sasuke countered by moving out of her way. "You lied to me. You said it would only sting a 'little.'"

The Hyuuga made another grab for his elbow, but Sasuke pulled it out from behind him and held it far above his head where he knew she wouldn't be able to immediately reach. His well-meaning antagonist swiped at it, but didn't come anywhere close to grabbing him. She steadied herself on his knee and leaned forward as he continued to lean back. "Sasuke-san! Just let me – "

The Hyuuga girl squealed as the hand bracing herself on Sasuke's knee slipped.  
Overcorrecting herself, the girl pulled herself upright and away from Sasuke and began falling in the opposite direction. She teetered precariously on the edge of the porch, fighting with gravity to keep her balance, with her arms flailing about helplessly. Squeezing her eyes shut tight, she succumbed to the forces of nature and tilted backward with an alarmed wail.

With a single, automatic motion, Sasuke leaned up and caught her, curling his left arm around her rib cage. A small tug and minimal strain on his muscles reversed the direction of her fall and she collapsed into his lap, hands grasping for stability. She found it in the folds of his shirt and clung tightly.

The Uchiha prodigy grimaced as he cradled the Hyuuga against his chest, fighting to maintain his own balance. '_Girls fall for me all the time, but this is ridiculous._'

— — —

**Footnotes:**

( 1 ) Yukata – a summer kimono. They're usually made of cotton, consist of only one layer, and sport colorful patterns. In Japan today, you usually only see girls wearing yukata (in public) for summer festivals (as is often depicted in manga/anime).

Aside from giving you a decent idea about the setting, I chose this clothing for Hinata because 1)  
it's light an airy, like her personality, and 2) because I figure that the Hyuuga household is traditional/formal, even when relaxed.

This is an extremely abbreviated explanation about Yukata. There are different yukata for men and women, public and private use, and differing color patterns depending on age. For more information, check your nearest search engine.

( 2 ) Tabi – socks. Specifically, socks for geta or zori (both of which are a type of sandal) with a slit between the big toe and the next. You people that like to wear socks with flip flops would LOVE these.

Who else thinks it's funny that the Japanese cornered the market on socks for sandals?

( 3 ) Shoji – a type of door likened to a screen. The frame is made of wood and covered in paper and slides back and forth on a track, again much like a contemporary screen/back door. These doors are generally found in traditional Japanese homes/mansions.

---

**Authors Notes: **Ugh. being a pain tonight. I had to use a different file type just to get this document uploaded! If there's anything wrong with the structure, text attributes, or whatever, be patient; I'll load a better version tomorrow if such is the case.

Sorry that I'm updating this story before "Speak Up" this week; I was getting behind in the completion of this story and Riceesquared has been waiting for such a long time. Not to worry, though, because I've already finished up the last portion of this story so it should never take precedence over its sequel again.

Oh, and the eighth chapter of "Speak Up" is also on its way. I'd give it another day or so since it's a little longer than previous chapters, but it'll definitely be up by the weekend. Oh! And now that I no longer have to work on the weekends, I should be able to update quicker! HAZZAH! (Hehe, RenFest speak is hard to break n.n;)

**Conclusion to be posted on:** December 1st, 2006. Check my Author's Notes at the bottom for a special holiday surprise!

_**. ( . Ms Videl Son . ) .**_

– _Love can be black and white. SasuHina._


	3. Heartache

**Title:** Kiss Away the Pain  
**Disclaimer:** If I owned _Naruto_, Sasuke and Hinata would actually have a bit of interaction in canon. As it is, they don't, so I guess I don't own _Naruto_.  
**Rating:** PG ( K+ ) – for a bit of cursing and Sasuke being a meanie.  
**Spoilers:** If you haven't read past the first volume of _Naruto_, you're in for a few surprises. Additionally, you're a total idiot for reading fanfiction in the _Naruto_ section. Shoo!

**Summary:** ThreeShot. "N-nothing heals w-without a k-kiss..." SasuHina. (Prequel to "Speak Up")

Written in honor of Riceesquared, my newest accomplice.

* * *

**Part Three:** Heartache

After a few moments of frozen time, the Hyuuga girl's clenched eyelids relaxed and eased open. A shy sliver of silvery-white peeked through the heavy veil of eyelashes that threatened to overwhelm her vision, cautiously bringing the girl back into the flow of time.

Sasuke's heart thumped in his throat as those opaque orbs of hers rolled upward to look at him, the lightest touch of color spread across her cheeks. She blinked once and the strawberry-pink hue spread to her ears.

The Hyuuga girl in his arms quivered like a frightened rabbit, but didn't move to pull away immediately. If anything, she clutched the handfuls she had of his shirt with more tenacity.

In a mere ghost of a voice, she whispered, "Thank y-you, Sasuke-san..."

A warm, heavy fuzz had settled around Sasuke's brain, making his usually sharp intellect dull. Briefly, he wondered if this was how it felt to be Naruto. "Huh?"

The Hyuuga girl's face burned a brighter shade and she looked down, breaking the spell she had cast over her savior. "I s-said, t-th-thank y-you, S-Sasuke-s-san."

Her reaction was contagious and Sasuke felt his cheeks warm a couple of degrees. The strange quivering in his stomach wasn't helping, either; if anything, it was making him nauseous and dizzy.

Were these the early symptoms of what Sakura called "Spring Fever"?

With the same reflexes he had used to catch her, Sasuke thrust the Hyuuga girl away, gulping down his fluttering heart. He held her by the shoulders at arms length, face averted, and pulled his composure together. "It was nothing," he grunted, coughing away the unnatural squeak that had disrupted the usually smooth timbre of his voice.

"R-right...," she replied softly. Sasuke could almost picture the meek, disheartened expression that he was sure she was wearing. Could imagine those omniscient eyes cast to the side in an attempt not to see through him...

The young Uchiha chanced a quick glance at the Hyuuga and saw her exactly as his mind depicted her; curled in on herself, frightened of looking at him, and at a loss for what to do next.

To spare her (not himself) the awkward moments that were surely to follow, Sasuke deemed it time to take his leave. Sakura and Ino were probably searching the opposite end of Konoha by then, anyhow.

With firm decision, Sasuke pulled his hands away and stood up, forcefully breaking his own stare. "I'm gonna go now. See ya."

Stuffing his tingling hands deep into his pockets, the Uchiha avenger spun around to leave the way he came. He had only managed a few steps when a timid shout compelled him to pause.

"W-wait!"

_Tha-thump!_

Sasuke tilted his head toward the girl to show he was listening, but was reluctant to turn and allow her to observe his expression. He couldn't account for what she might see. "What?"

"A-ano...," the tremble in her voice revealed that she'd lost her confidence and, thus, forgotten what she had meant to say.

_Tha-**thump**!_

Sasuke waited a few impatient seconds before snapping, "If you don't have anything else to say, then – "

"Y-you can't leave y-yet!" she interrupted. The Uchiha could hear a rustle of thick fabric and a sharp creak of wood. "I haven't f-finished c-cleaning your hand."

Sasuke craned his neck to get a full view of her; she was standing, looking for all the world like she would rather have let him go, but determined to stop him all the same. He very nearly respected her reluctant courage and allowed himself a barely perceptible smile.

"Fine," Sasuke said, forcing his cool demeanor back in place. Momentarily, at least.

The Hyuuga girl's face brightened with a sweet smile as she stooped to pick up her first aid equipment. She approached him quickly with the soft patter of sock-feet. "I'll be d-done soon, I pr-promise," she said, waving a hand to indicate that he take a seat.

Sasuke responded obediently to the silent bidding by dropping himself to the lacquered floor and dangling his legs over the side of the porch. She took her place beside him with a bit more demure caution in respect for her traditional dress, her box of healing aids in her lap.

Sasuke held his hand out for her and she immediately accepted it, dabbing a bit of salve on his crusting wound. "Wh-what caused you to fall and h-hurt yourself?" she asked, keeping her eyes solely on his palm.

"Sakura and Ino," Sasuke shrugged. He caught her eye, noted her confusion, and elaborated, "They were chasing me."

"Why?"

Again, Sasuke shrugged. "I don't know. They think I'm playing hard to get, I guess."

The Hyuuga girl giggled. Sasuke could feel the high-pitched treble deep in the pit of his stomach. "Well, you certainly don't like to be caught," she observed.

Sasuke raised an eyebrow at her and it was the girl's turn to elaborate.

"You don't seem to want to face your pain," she said, wiping a little excess salve from between his fingers. Her eyes were half-lidded and glazed over as she absentmindedly rubbed another glob of salve into his already slathered cut. "Even if it's for your own good."

Sasuke didn't know how to respond to that, so he didn't. '_At least she's not stuttering anymore_,' he noted as they fell into a relatively comfortable silence. '_I guess I'm not so scary after whining about a little healing salve_,' he winced.

The Hyuuga girl looked up at him through the strands of hair that fell haphazardly in her eyes from her barely contained bun. "S-sorry," she apologized, returning her attention to her task with a blush flooding her cheeks. She began to wipe off the extra ointment with a clean corner of the cloth she was using.

"Hn," the Uchiha responded, suddenly confronted with the crown of her head instead of her face. While they were talking about basically nothing, he decided to ask about something that had been bothering him. "Why did you pull your hair back like that? Kind of defeats the purpose of having short hair, doesn't it?"

The Hyuuga girl lifted her chin a little and Sasuke could see a bit of her face again. "Grandmother insisted. She said that it makes my hair look longer."

Sasuke snorted, "You should take it down. It's too much trouble to keep it up like that."

"B-but – "

"Short hair is better, anyway," Sasuke continued, finding himself strangely loquacious on the issue. He just couldn't stand it when people did ridiculous things to make other people like them, or some stupid shit like that. "It's low maintenance and stays out of your way during training."

The Hyuuga girl was looking directly at him now, the ointment-covered rag hovering above his palm. "I...I guess you're right, Sasuke-san. I'm sor – "

"And stop apologizing," he said, a firm edge in his tone.

"Y-yes. I'm sor – ," the girl stopped herself, shaking her head with a strange giggle. "I mean, thank you, Sasuke-san."

"You're welcome."

A few eternal seconds later, "There, all done." The Hyuuga girl was smiling again, this time with enough cheer to narrow her eyes. "Just give me another second and I'll bandage it for you."

She abandoned his hand for a few seconds to rifle through her first aid kit, procuring a roll of gauzy bandage and surgical tape.

Without bothering to ask his permission this time, the girl reached out and took possession of his hand, firmly pulling it forward to rest in her lap. With sympathetic manipulation, she twined the bandage around his palm and secured it with a well-placed piece of tape.

As a finishing touch, she lifted the bandaged appendage up to her lips and placed an innocent kiss in the center of his palm. "All finished, Sasuke-san," she declared with a luminescent smile.

-**_THUMP_**!

Sasuke jerked his hand away in a reflexive motion, his sense of self-preservation against all-things-female overwhelming the strange feelings kindling in the pit of his stomach. "What was that for?"

The Hyuuga girl's eyes were wide and horrified as she scrambled to beg his forgiveness. "I'm s-so s-sorry, Sasuke-san! I didn't – I w-wasn't thinking – "

_Tha-thump – tha-**thump** – tha-THUMP – tha-**THUMP**..._!

Sasuke edged away from the girl, holding his hand to his chest as if she had been the one to injure it. "What the _hell_ did you _kiss_ me for?"

"I – I – I d-didn't mean – I was j-j-just – "

"_Spit it out_!"

"It always m-makes m-me feel better!" the girl finally cried, burying her abashed face in her hands.

Sasuke couldn't tell whether the anger bubbling within his chest was directed more at the girl or his own lack of understanding. "What?"

"N-nothing heals w-without a kiss," the girl explained, chancing a timid peek at him from betwixt her fingers. Her eyes rose to meet his like the moon rises to greet the stars.

_Tha-THUMP – tha-**thump** – tha-thump_!

"Whenever I h-hurt myself, my nurse always k-kisses my injury so it will f-feel better."

Sasuke had to admit that he felt pretty numb after the kiss, though he didn't think that this effect was what the Hyuuga girl meant to cause. Not that he could really say for certain, of course; it had been a long time since anyone had tenderly cared for his aches and pains.

"Oh," was all he could think of to say. He swallowed a lump in his throat and chose to stare at his feet.

_...tha-**thump**...tha-thump..._

"S-Sorry..."

Without looking up, Sasuke growled, "I told you to stop that."

After a brief pause, he heard a giggle. Glancing up, Sasuke felt another hard knot forming in the vicinity of his Adam's apple; the girl was wearing the brightest smile he had seen yet, curling at the edges of her lips like a flowering vine, and laughing into a loosely-clenched fist. Her eyes were closed as she expressed her mirth, though the barest hint of milky white leaked through her eyelashes; a perfect contrast to the unrestrained hair that fell into her face.

_**THA-THUMP**!_

Sasuke didn't know what possessed him to blush over something he'd seen a hundred girls do a million times, but he couldn't seem to hold it back.

"I'm sorry, Sasuke-s-san," she laughed, stuttering between breaths. "I just...can't...seem to...stop..."

'_That's alright with me_,' Sasuke decided, taking advantage of his opportunity to watch her openly while she wasn't paying any attention. Everything inside him was squirming and, while he didn't think this symptom was particularly healthy, he couldn't say he wasn't enjoying the sensation.

"Ah, my stomach hurts...," the girl moaned, leaning against the pillar he had swept her behind at their earlier meeting. She clutched at her stomach with the arm not pressed between her body and the wood, but she was smiling through the pain gladly.

Her lips, still stretched across her face in merriment, drew Sasuke's attention into a more narrow focus. They looked plush and shiny from her constant nibbling and so very, _very_ tasty.

_Tha-thump – tha-**thump** – tha-THUMP – tha-**THUMP**..._!

Licking his own lips, the Uchiha wondered absently if the kiss-and-make-it-better rule applied to stomachaches. And, if so, did it matter where he kissed her...?

Horrified at his own train of thought, Sasuke shook the idea out of his head with a reprimanding flinch. His aloof, loner reputation aside, the Uchiha prodigy couldn't afford to go around kissing girls for practical reasons. They tended to get the wrong idea when he so much as passed papers down his row in class so he shuddered to think what might happen if he actually went out of his way to show one genuine _affection_.

It was most definitely time to be going. Scrambling to his feet, Sasuke stepped around the squatting girl with long, quick strides, throwing a brief explanation over his shoulder as he went. "I need to go train. See you."

"Ah, wait! Sasuke-san," the girl's voice, confused and slightly panicked, brought him back to her a second time. "Did I offend you?"

Sasuke hopped down two steps before answering, "No."

"T-then could I ask you a f-favor before you l-leave?"

Unable to deny her request outright, Sasuke paused on the porch steps to listen. He inclined his head to catch a glimpse of her out of the corner of his eye. "What?"

The girl fidgeted, poking her fingers together as she plucked up courage for what she was about to say next. Her cheeks were the brightest shade he'd seen so far. "N-Naruto-kun is on your t-team, r-r-right?"

'_What's she blushing for?'_ he wondered silently, roving his dark glare over her crouched form. Whatever her reasons were, Sasuke was sure he didn't like them. "Yeah. What of it?"

"A-ano...c-could you t-tell him that H-Hinata says 'h-h-hello,' please?"

_Tha-THUMP_!

The hairs on the back of Sasuke's neck rose as the pit of his stomach dropped. So her sudden case of nerves was the _dobe_'s fault, then?

Sasuke's eyes narrowed and flashed red for a brief moment."No."

And then he was gone.

_**Fin...?**_

— — —

**NOTE:** This story was plagiarized yesterday. I kid you not; someone actually copied my story, verbatim, and posted it under their penname. Luckily, Blue Quartz Foxy and CWolf2 were both kind enough to alert me to the problem and -- through a bit of strongly worded "suggestion" -- the "author" (I use the term loosely) eventually had no choice but to take the offending post down. However, I'm not quite finished with her; she will know my wrath for far longer than necessary. I'm not about to let her forget me or what she did; from now on, I have her on my alert list and will be checking up on every story she posts, just to make sure that it wasn't ripped off from somebody else. She messed with the wrong author this time.

Btw, since her name is already of public record on LiveJournal, I'll go ahead and post it here, as well: TheFirstTime.

Proof of this alleged crime against me can be found on both my own LJ profile (megaminoeien) and sunnyday love (a Hinata group on LJ). Though you can no longer find MY story in HER profile, you can always see the remnants of last night's events to know that I'm telling nothing but the truth (unlike some unscrupulous persons I could mention).

Be sure to keep a lookout for your own works in duplicate on you can never be sure of other "author's" intentions. Hopefully, you'll be as lucky as I was in this situation and someone (possibly even a few people) will come to your rescue. Even more hopefully, you won't have to deal with this at all.

Thank you for your attention. Please scroll down for some happier news and that surprise I promised in the first chapter.

**Authors Notes:** What could possibly be better than SasuHina fanfiction? Why, SasuHina DOUJINSHI (fan comic), of course! Incidentally, there just happens to be such a doujinshi inspired by this fic, as illustrated by the fabulous Riceesquared. I know that some of you already know of this dojinshi (some of you actually found my story _through_ it, after all), but I hope that a few of you, at least, found a pleasant surprise in your stocking this morning **n.n**

**Link:** http // www . deviantart . com / deviation / 43547042 / (Don't forget to take all the extra spaces out!)

Be sure to shower her with positive reviews! Her art is amazing (and far better than mine **n.n**;)

Parts two (More) and three (Heartache) of the doujinshi will be up soon. Patience is a virtue (and this Riceesquared's art is certainly worth the wait)!

_**. ( . Ms Videl Son . ) .**_

– _Love can be black and white. SasuHina._


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